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	* {{IMDb title\|0064403\|Hannibal Brooks}}		* {{IMDb title\|0064403\|Hannibal Brooks}}

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	{{Clement and La Frenais}}		{{Clement and La Frenais}}

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	[[Category:1960s British films]]		[[Category:1960s British films]]
			[[Category:British comedy-drama films]]

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{{Short description|1969 film by Michael Winner}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2015}}

{{Infobox film
| name = Hannibal Brooks
| image = Hannibal Brooks Film Poster.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[Michael Winner]]
| producer = Michael Winner
| screenplay = {{Plainlist|
* [[Ian La Frenais]]
* [[Dick Clement]]}}
| story = {{Plainlist|
* Michael Winner
* Tom Wright}}
| starring = {{Plainlist|
* [[Oliver Reed]]
* [[Michael J. Pollard]]
* [[Wolfgang Preiss]]
* [[Helmuth Lohner]]|}}
| music = [[Francis Lai]]
| cinematography = [[Robert Paynter]]
| editing = {{Plainlist|
* Peter Austen-Hunt
* Lionel Selwyn}}
|budget=£1 million<ref name="rail">There was a crooked rail
Wright, Ian. The Guardian 29 May 1968: 7.</ref> or less than $3 million<ref>Article 5 -- No Title
SHIVAS, MARK. Los Angeles Times (19230 Mar 1969: t1.</ref>
| distributor = [[United Artists]]
| released = {{Film date|df=y|1969|04|3|[[Fox Theater, Westwood Village]], Los Angeles|ref1=<ref name="champlin" />}}
| runtime = 102 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
}}

'''''Hannibal Brooks''''' is a 1969 British [[War film|war]] [[comedy film]] directed by [[Michael Winner]] and written by [[Ian La Frenais]] and [[Dick Clement]], based on a story by Winner and Tom Wright.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://flashbak.com/you-dont-share-a-hotel-with-oliver-reed-michael-winner-takes-two-elephants-to-switzerland-52700/|title='You Don't Share A Hotel with Oliver Reed': Michael Winner Takes Two Elephants to Switzerland|last=Gallagher|first=Paul|date=2016-02-01|website=Flashbak|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102194711/https://flashbak.com/you-dont-share-a-hotel-with-oliver-reed-michael-winner-takes-two-elephants-to-switzerland-52700/ |archive-date=2020-01-02}}</ref> It stars [[Oliver Reed]], [[Michael J. Pollard]] and [[Wolfgang Preiss]].

The film follows a [[prisoner of war]]'s attempt to escape from [[Nazi Germany]] to [[Switzerland]] during the [[Second World War]], accompanied by a female [[Asian elephant]]. The idea for the film was inspired by Tom Wright's diary from the war, when he was captured and spent nine months as a prisoner taking care of Asian elephants at the Munich zoo.<ref name="Goodwin">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OAvUAEFqTPIC&q=9780753505199|title=Evil Spirits: The Life of Oliver Reed|last1=Goodwin|first1=Cliff|publisher=Virgin |year=2001|isbn=9780753505199|page=115}}</ref> However, the escape and all following events of the film are fictional. The title alludes to the [[Ancient Carthage|Carthaginian]] military commander [[Hannibal]] who led an army with [[war elephant]]s over the [[Alps]].

==Plot==
Lance corporal Stephen "Hannibal" Brooks is a British [[prisoner of war]] who is put to work in [[Munich]] zoo, looking after a female [[Asian elephant]] named Lucy. When the zoo is bombed by the Americans, the zoo director decides that the zoo is unsafe for the elephant. Brooks is sent along with hostile German soldier Kurt, a friendly German soldier named Willy and Vronia, a female cook to accompany the elephant to [[Innsbruck]] Zoo via a train.

They are forced to walk when Colonel von Haller, an [[SS]] officer tells Brooks that the elephant is not allowed on the train. In [[Austria]], Kurt threatens to shoot Lucy while drunk and Brooks accidentally kills Kurt. Brooks, Lucy, Willy and Vronia are forced to run towards the [[Switzerland|Swiss]] border. They are helped along the way by an American escapee named Packy who has formed a group of [[Partisan (military)|partisans]] to fight the Germans in Austria, after many run-ins with the Nazis. Half-way there, Lucy gets [[mumps]], so Brooks finds an Austrian doctor to look after her, while Vronia and Willy run to Willy's parents' house. Vronia and Willy are captured and are later joined by Brooks. Brooks and Willy are rescued by Packy and continue to race towards Switzerland with Lucy. Unfortunately, along the way Willy is shot by the Nazis while helping Brooks to escape.

When Brooks gets close to the border with Lucy, he is met by von Haller, who tells him to walk to Switzerland and Vronia, who has changed sides after being captured. Von Haller proposes the three go together to Switzerland as he intends to defect due to Germany's deteriorating military position. They are joined by Packy and his partisans near a German border post. The plan is to use von Haller to bluff their way through but he betrays them. Vronia tries to warn the others and is shot in the back. After another long fight with the Germans, Brooks and Lucy eventually get to Switzerland with Packy and his remaining partisans.

==Cast==
* [[Oliver Reed]] as Stephen 'Hannibal' Brooks
* [[Michael J. Pollard]] as Packy
* [[Wolfgang Preiss]] as Colonel von Haller
* [[Helmuth Lohner]] as Willi
* [[Peter Carsten]] as Kurt
* [[Karin Baal]] as Vronia
* [[Ralf Wolter]] as Dr. Mendel
* [[John Alderton]] as Bernard
* {{Ill|Jürgen Draeger|de}} as Semi
* [[Ernst Fritz Fürbringer]] as Elephant keeper Kellerman
* [[:de:Erik Jelde#Filmografie (Auswahl)|Erik Jelde]] as Zoo director Stern
* [[James Donald]] as Padre
* [http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=728 Aida The Elephant] as Lucy

==Filming==
Michael Winner had meant to make a film about [[William the Conqueror]] but been unable to raise finance. When that film fell through he had ''Hannibal Brooks'' ready to go.<ref>Michael J. Pollard in the Alps, or How C. W. Moss Won the War By MARK SHIVASBLUDENZ, Austria. New York Times 28 July 1968: 82.</ref> Michael J Pollard was paid $75,000 for his role. (He had received $14,000 for ''Bonnie and Clyde''.<ref>Rubber-Faced Mike Has Lots of Support in Oscar Race Norma Lee Browning. Chicago Tribune 7 Apr 1968: e12.</ref>) "Pollard will be a major star of the 70s," said Winner.<ref>JOYCE HABER: Michael Pollard: An Establishment Hippie Los Angeles Times 16 Mar 1969: v13.</ref> Location shooting took place in Austria and Munich in May 1968.<ref name="Goodwin" /><ref>MOVIE CALL SHEET: A Role in 'Hello, Dolly!' Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 19 Feb 1968: c29.</ref>

==Paperback novelization==
Releasing it slightly in advance of the film (normal for the era), [[Lancer Books]] published a novelization of the screenplay, by [[Lou Cameron]], a ubiquitous, notable and award-winning pulpsmith of the 60s through the 80s, among whose specialities was novels of men at war.

==Reception==
[[Vincent Canby]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote that the film "has a kind of slow, tranquilized dignity and a disarming desire to please. The extent to which it succeeds will depend largely on one's susceptibility to the old [[Sabu Dastagir|Sabu]] syndrome."<ref>Canby, Vincent (May 1, 1969). [https://www.nytimes.com/1969/05/01/archives/screen-a-pachyderm-and-a-powhannibal-brooks-opens-at-local-theaters.html "Screen: A Pachyderm and a P.O.W.".] ''[[The New York Times]]''. 52.</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' called the film a "pleasant, tame tale" in which Reed "carries the entire film on his admittedly broad shoulders but can't overcome the confused writing or the even greater burden of a poor performance by co-star, Michael J. Pollard. The latter, for some reason appearing as though he'd just completed a crash diet, is simply dreadful as a cocky Yank prisoner."<ref>"Film Reviews: Hannibal Brooks". ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]''. March 5, 1969. 6.</ref> [[Charles Champlin]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' thought that the film seemed like "two or three story ideas (any one of which might conceivably have worked) interleaved into one big mish-mash which doesn't work ... Winner's direction is no help since he never really defines Reed's basic character."<ref name="champlin">Champlin, Charles (April 3, 1969). "'Hannibal' Opens Today in Westwood". ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. Part IV, p. 1.</ref> Clifford Terry of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' called it "a preposterous, but pleasantly enjoyable film" with Reed giving "a solid, versatile performance, mixing humor and controlled anger."<ref>Terry, Clifford (June 25, 1969). "Hannibal Brooks". ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''. Section 2, p. 5.</ref> Gary Arnold of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' stated, "'Hannibal Brooks' should work. The technical problem is that Winner hasn't tried to draw us into the story at an easy, natural pace. He throws us into it, and almost every transition or change of scene is crudely bridged by a jump cut and a bad punch line."<ref>Arnold, Gary (April 26, 1969). "Hannibal Brooks". ''[[The Washington Post]]''. E6.</ref> ''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'' commented: "''Hannibal Brooks'' suffers from a state of chronic uncertainty about just what sort of film it is trying to be. At some points all is elephant whimsy ... At others, Packy's guerrillas are in stern action, while Brooks lingers on the sidelines asking plaintively and pacifically 'what's it all ''for''?' after the blowing up of a German convoy."<ref>{{cite journal |date=May 1969 |title=Hannibal Brooks |journal=[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]] |volume=36 |issue=424 |page=102 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0064403|Hannibal Brooks}}

{{Michael Winner}}
{{Clement and La Frenais}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hannibal Brooks}}
[[Category:1969 films]]
[[Category:1960s war comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:British war comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:1960s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Michael Winner]]
[[Category:Films set in Austria]]
[[Category:Films set in the Alps]]
[[Category:Films set in Munich]]
[[Category:Films about Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:Films shot in Austria]]
[[Category:Films shot in Munich]]
[[Category:Military humor in film]]
[[Category:World War II prisoner of war films]]
[[Category:United Artists films]]
[[Category:Films about elephants]]
[[Category:Films scored by Francis Lai]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Dick Clement]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Ian La Frenais]]
[[Category:1969 comedy films]]
[[Category:1969 drama films]]
[[Category:British World War II films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Michael Winner]]
[[Category:Films produced by Michael Winner]]
[[Category:1960s British films]]

Hannibal Brooks - Revision history

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